Sports

Bob Wolfley | SportsDay

Fox announcers impressed with Brewers

What has surprised you more this baseball season: the Boston Red Sox's struggles, the Oakland A's success or the Milwaukee Brewers' success?

That was the question posed to Fox Sports' lead announcing team of Joe Buck, Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci, who will call the All-Star Game in Minneapolis on Tuesday for their network.

Two of the three picked the Brewers' performance as the biggest surprise among those three (even though the Brewers had lost six of their last seven entering Tuesday).

"I would say the Milwaukee Brewers' success and what they have been able to do with their rotation, the sustained innings," Buck said during a conference call Tuesday. "Getting contributions from unlikely sources. Everything had to break right for the Red Sox to be even in the consideration for repeating....I'm happy for Milwaukee and to me they're the easy, clear answer to that question."

Reynolds also picked Milwaukee's play as the biggest surprise.

"Milwaukee came out of nowhere," Reynolds said. "I don't think anybody thought they were going to be there, especially when you saw how well the Pirates had played last season, the Cardinals going to the World Series. Knowing that those two would be in that division and that division was continuing to get better....I think Milwaukee is the clear-cut story."

Verducci said he had Oakland winning the American League pennant before the season started, so he could not pick the A's.

"But I actually think the depth of the Red Sox struggles is more of a surprise than how well Milwaukee has done," Verducci said. "We knew things weren't going to go as well or as easy last year. But for this team to be as bad offensively as they are, in the park that they play in, I would never have seen that coming."

Reynolds and Verducci also answered another Brewers-related question.

They were asked what it was about Carlos Gomez's game that irritated some opposing players. The Brewers centerfielder was voted a National League starter in the All-Star Game.

"To me, it's kind of a compliment because he is so darn good," Verducci said. "Guys who aren't very good don't irritate the guys on the other side of the field. But he also does it with flair, which I have no problem with. I like seeing emotion in the game as long as it is not directly addressed to the other team in a demeaning way. I don't think he does that.

"I also like the fact that he is one of the most aggressive hitters in the game. Sometimes that doesn't go over well either. He is going to swing out of his shoelaces whether it's first pitch or 3-2. And pitchers don't like that. But I think as fans we should applaud that.

"Actually, the Brewers to me, the whole team, they are one of the most aggressive-hitting teams in baseball. You are seeing the results, when a lot of teams to me are still playing a game from 10 years ago, trying to run up pitch counts and draw walks."

Reynolds said Gomez's ability was the precondition of any irritation opposing players may have for him.

"I think he is so exciting," Reynolds said. "He's really what this game needs. We are at a crossroads of some guys want to stick with the old school. You've got other guys who are coming out and have some flair. With (Yasiel) Puig. We see it with Gomez. If you look around, I think a lot of this came with the World Baseball Classic. If you watch that, each culture has different ways of playing baseball. Now you are seeing it even more in the big leagues.

"We are going to continue to see it with the flair and the flash. And guys are going to have to get used to it. I mean it's a generational change. I think that's kind of what rubs it in people's faces. And he doesn't back down either. I look at the two or three different times that he has had some things happen to him on the field. He really didn't create those. It was the irritation of another player — like, for example, the whole Pittsburgh blowup. That was them going after him. He had a triple and dove into third base. Oh well. So I think a lot of the things are because of the flair he plays with."

On April 20 in Pittsburgh, Gomez hit a triple off the center-field wall off pitcher Gerrit Cole. Gomez stopped to watch the ball after he hit it, which did not sit well with Cole and led to a benches-clearing incident.

"I remember when Rickey Henderson came into the league," Reynolds said. "And he was snatching fly balls and he was playing with flair. A lot of people had a tough time with that as well. But when he continued to produce, it was 'That's Rickey being Rickey.' I think you are going to hear that with Carlos because he is going to continue to be one of the great players in the league."